The Braves Are Bringing Back Their Super-Racist “Screaming Savage” Logo

Pictured above is the Atlanta Braves’ new batting practice cap for this year. Apparently, it was a feature of Braves jersey from 1967–1989 before someone came to their senses and retired it in favor of the regular A that appears on caps and the still-questionable-but-less-questionable-than-the-Screaming-Savage tomahawk. But all the league’s teams change their batting practice caps every few years, and the Braves have decided that this gives them the perfect opportunity to reintroduce a little racism to their franchise!

As one of only four professional teams in the three major sports — sorry, hockey, you don’t get to be major unless you actually exist — to be named after Native Americans/Indians, the Braves were already on shaky ground. (The other three are the Cleveland Indians in the MLB and the Washington Redskins and Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL.) Some people see these nicknames as honorifics and argue that the tribes often endorse them, while others claim that they’re offensive and degrading, particularly when, as is the case with the Redskins, their names are literally racial slurs. Meanwhile, more and more college teams have been running away from such nicknames every year.

No matter how you feel about the names as a presence in professional sports, though, it’s hard to feel anything but repulsion regarding this particular logo. It’s actually called the “Screaming Savage.” That’s not all right.

Anyway, the moral of this story is, if baseball teams didn’t need so many damn hats, this wouldn’t be a problem.